We’d like to congratulate Rachel B. on being our 2022 Chicago 3-Day Milestone Award Winner! Rachel has participated in 28 3-Days over the last 17 years and has raised over $241,000 to date.
We asked Rachel how she got involved in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, and how she and her team continue to be outstanding fundraisers.
“My Mom had just finished her radiation treatment after her breast cancer diagnosis when I saw an advertisement for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day. I knew that I needed to take action against the disease so my younger sister and a friend joined me for the 2005 Arizona 3-Day. We saw all of the fun names of the teams that were formed and decided on Bouncin’ Buckeyes. Buckeyes refers to our Ohio roots and Bouncin’ is a reference to the boobs. Our first year my sister raised her money within two weeks. She showed me what is possible when you ask for a certain amount of money and also inform the donor of your deadline.
It’s important to remember why you are walking and to share this in your donation requests. I can’t imagine not having all of the memories with my Mom since she was diagnosed in 2004. I try not to take it for granted as I know many that do not get the extra time. I’m grateful for the advances in research and treatment that Susan G. Komen has provided and I know the money that I raise is making a difference.
My Mom’s breast cancer was found from a mobile mammogram bus visiting her place of employment. They compared her mammogram to the previous year and saw a difference and sent her for a lumpectomy. Early detection and annual mammograms saved her life. Our team is a super-fundraising team so we have always had a goal to raise more than the minimum. Our supporters are generous and support us with donations to achieve our goals year over year. I also send emails throughout the year so that I am sharing our progress. After the walk, I send all of my donors a thank you card made with some 3-Day pictures and include a donation form for the next year’s 3-Day.”
We also asked some of her friends to provide a brief testimonial to her greatness!
“Rachel is the reason I joined the 3-Day. Her passion is contagious. She works countless hours to raise funds for herself and others. Her selfless acts and drive to raise awareness are inspiring.” — Heather G.
“Rachel is an amazing person and a great team captain. She keeps us all focused and without her we’d be lost.” — Billy G.
“Rachel is the most committed individual I’ve ever known. Her passion for the 3-Day and the fight against breast cancer personifies the statement, ‘We will never quit!!!’ That is why she leads our team.” — Bobbi D.
Rachel shared with us, she is a Rodan + Fields skincare consultant and was given the opportunity to join her team on a mission trip to Ethiopia with Ordinary Hero. Rachel visited multiple orphanages and learned how critical food is to our lives. She now sponsors two families in Ethiopia, providing monthly food and allowing their children to go to school. Rachel has been back to Ethiopia once already and hopes to go again in 2023.
Stay tuned throughout the rest of the 2022 Susan G. Komen 3-Day Series for our other Milestone Award Winners!
Please join us in congratulating our 2021 3-Day Nation Milestone Award Winner, Laura K! The Susan G. Komen 3-Day® Milestone Award is given at each event to a participant who has an outstanding history of participation in the Komen 3-Day. Laura has been walking in the 3-Day since 2008 and has walked every year since, completing 16 3-Day walks.
Laura’s friend Kate told us about how genuinely giving she is saying, “I can’t think of anyone more deserving of the Milestone Award than Laura for her contributions and commitment to the 3-Day. Laura owns her own business, is devoted to her family, especially her new granddaughter, and is active in her church. Somehow, with all that she does for her community and friends she finds time to fundraise and train for the 3-Day. Laura is caring, compassionate, funny, and generous. She inspires me and all who know her to be better people. I am so proud to have known Laura for the last 13 years and to have her as a member of the Connecticut Pink Warriors.”
Fellow 3-Day walker, Cynthia, also had very kind words to say about her friend stating, “Laura is one of the most dedicated to the cause people I know. She goes above and beyond with fundraising every year. We met in 2010 doing the Boston 3-Day and have been friends ever since, walking together during the 3-Days, training together, and visiting when we can! And boy, when she walks, she walks! She has done many 60-mile 3-Days over the years! I love training with her, along with our friendship!”
Laura’s friend, Sharyn says, “I met Laura a long time ago through my involvement with the Susan G. Komen 3-Day. We have walked many 3-Day events together and Laura’s commitment to find the cures is huge. She has walked for the past 13 years totaling 16 walks and has raised over $100,000 and is still going strong. Dedication, commitment, drive, ambition, and making a difference are all words that describe Laura. I’m thrilled the Milestone Award was given to her this year.”
What was your inspiration to do your first 3-Day?
I believe that everyone needs to have something in their life that they are passionate about and that challenges themselves to become a better person. I feel that we need to give back in whatever we do.
When my two sons were younger, my husband and I were involved with coaching them on various recreational sports teams. Once they reached high school and the teams became more competitive, they needed “real” coaches. Since I was not needed as a coach anymore, I needed something new to redirect my energy to. I saw an ad on TV about the 3-Day, so I went to one of the local meetings where one of the coaches shared her story about her diagnosis with breast cancer while she was in college. It inspired me, and I then found what I was meant to be doing. The friends I met over the years through the Pink Bubble have become an important part of my life. I ended up meeting Kate at this meeting, and we became fast friends. We challenged each other as we trained together.
At first this adventure was to challenge myself to walk 60 miles in three days. Then, I began to think about how many peoples’ lives were impacted by raising money for breast cancer research and awareness. That became a very rewarding adventure.
What has brought you back to the 3-Day year after year?
In a world where we are so busy, the 3-Day Pink Bubble has allowed me to really think about what is important in life. The 3-Day is always a weekend spent with wonderful friends where you become emotional, physically, and mentally exhausted as you are all fighting for a common cause. I know that may sound strange, but it is a humbling experience and recharges the soul. We all know of someone who has been impacted by breast cancer and can see the toll that it has on them and their family. I always remember the sign from past 3-Day events that says, “Walking 60 miles is easier than breast cancer treatments.”
What is the secret to your 3-Day fundraising success?
I am very fortunate to have a career in financial planning where I am surrounded by people who are charitable, and they all know of someone who has had breast cancer. They too want to help make a difference in this world, so their donations always add up. Part of my job is to help them achieve their financial goals, and it is sad to see their dreams impacted by a breast cancer diagnosis. Even though they are not walking with me physically, their stories and memories of their loved ones are with me each step of the way.
What is your best advice to anyone walking the 3-Day?
Have fun, meet as many people as you can, share your stories, train for the walk, and believe that you can make a difference.
What’s a fun fact about you?
I love to garden and make the world a prettier place.
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned on the 3-Day?
I believe the strides Komen has been making to raise breast cancer awareness and the importance of early detection is really making a difference in the lives of those impacted. I am still hopeful that the cures are found for this disease during my lifetime. I have a 6-month-old granddaughter, and I hope she never has to experience hearing that someone she loves is diagnosed with breast cancer. The 3-Day is making a difference and building a community that I am so glad that I can be a part of!
Join us in congratulating Laura! THANK YOU for your contributions to the Komen 3-Day over the last 13 years!
“The 3-Day has given me a purpose beyond my own day-to-day life. I cannot imagine what the last 16 years would have been without it.” —Burt Lipshie
We are honored to celebrate Burt Lipshie, 29-time 3-Day walker, on surpassing the incredible fundraising milestone of $250,000 raised for the 3-Day! We marvel at the ways in which he’s made the world a better place through his participation and fundraising. We asked Burt to answer a few questions that we’re excited showcase here today on the 3-Day blog.
How did you get involved with the 3-Day?
My sweet cousin, Judy Lipshie, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. The tumor was small, and her lymph nodes were clear, so after a lumpectomy and radiation, she and her doctors thought she was done with it. However, two years later after suffering what felt like a torn muscle in her abdominal area, Judy got the news that her breast cancer had metastasized to her liver. Over the next three years, she was a fighter who did all she could. She was a true champion. But she could not conquer the beast. She died, still in the prime of her life, in April 2004 at 62 years of age.
Several weeks later as I was in my office, Judy just seemed to be everywhere. I could really feel her presence. I emailed her daughters to tell them that I was having a “Judy Day,” and they wrote back that they weren’t surprised. They were having one, too. They thought their momma was proud of them that day because they had just signed up for the 2004 Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day. I told them I was proud of them too, and that I would surely contribute to help them reach their goals.
I thought about it for a couple of days and knew I could not let them do this without me. I needed to put my body on the line as well to fight back against Judy’s killer, so we walked together. As we cried on each other’s shoulders at the end of the Closing Ceremony, I realized that I had found my life’s cause. The 2020 New England 3-Day would have been my 30th walk.
We all know raising money during a global pandemic isn’t easy, but how have you done it?
I am blessed with an extraordinary donor group. My donations are somewhat lower this year than prior years, but not dramatically. In this year’s fundraising emails I have focused on reminding them that breast cancer does not practice social distancing, and that it is not “on pause” because of the pandemic. Indeed, breast cancer patients and survivors, with their compromised immune systems and vulnerability to the economic disaster the pandemic has caused, are among the most at-risk segments of our community. I think that struck a responsive chord. Additionally, Komen’s decision to put all 3-Day donations through the end of June into the COVID-19 Action Fund also really helped. I could honestly tell my donors that their dollars were going directly to assist people who needed help the most.
What is your secret to raising so much money every year?
I wish I had a secret that I could share. You know that old saying, “Choose your parents wisely”? That can be applied to donors as well. I haven’t done anything special. I write emails to my friends and colleagues, make them cry, and then I just become the conduit for their incredible caring and generosity. I suppose that it helps that they know how hard the 3-Day is from all of my prior emails and journals, and I have found that keeping the group apprised of how training is going and of any news that Komen has shared on the scientific front helps to remind those who might otherwise put off making an annual donation.
What keeps you coming back to the 3-Day again and again?
Of course, it is mostly the cause. I need to do all I can to help see to it that Judy did not die in vain. I need to do all I can to help bring about the day when no other man or woman, no other family, loses a person they love to breast cancer.
But there is also the 3-Day community. Little did I know back in 2004 that I would quickly become embraced by this extraordinary group of people. Since 2008, I have done two walks every year – Dallas/Fort Worth with my cousins, and first Chicago, then Michigan, with my dear friend, Mary Larson. When, a few years ago, Mary thought she was through walking, I decided that I would cut back to walking only Dallas/Fort Worth, and that that year’s Michigan walk would be my last. However, by the time that Michigan 3-Day was done, I had already signed up for the next year.
How could I give up spending that long weekend with all the friends I had made over the years? The 3-Day community is very, very, special.
What are some of your top 3-Day memories from past years?
You can well imagine that over 29 3-Day walks I have accumulated many memories. A couple stick out.
The most meaningful for me happens every year in Dallas. In the Spring of 2004, I was asked to participate in a conference on the future of legal education held at SMU Law School in Dallas. Judy was then living with her mom in Abilene but had spent most of her adult life in Dallas, and she had planned to come to Dallas while I was there and sneak in to hear me speak. However, by the time the conference was held, she was already in hospice. After the conference, I took a long lonely walk along Turtle Creek, where she and I had so often walked together. This time, my steps took me all the way up to Curtis Park. There, sitting on a bench, I spoke with Judy by phone. It was the last time I heard her voice. She died two days later.
Every year, the Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day goes through Curtis Park, and passes “Judy’s Bench.” Every year, I get to walk by that sad place with hundreds of others fighting the same fight that for me began on that bench. It is always a highly emotional moment for me. In 2019, one of the 3-Day legends, Jim Hillmann, was walking with me when we got there, and he already knew my story from prior years. When I reached the bench, and essentially dissolved, Jim was right there to get me through it. His kindness at that moment embodied the 3-Day spirit.
Another powerful memory is also from the Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day. It was day three, and our route had us turning down Houston Street heading toward Dealey Plaza. There, at a small informal cheering station, sat an elderly woman holding a sign that thanked us for walking “from a 50-year survivor.” Without even thinking about it, I stopped, knelt at her feet, and took and kissed her hand. We both cried. I could go on for days about powerful 3-Day memories, but those may be the clearest in my mind.
How do you live the 3-Day spirit and spread the word all year long?
The 3-Day spirit and the mission is much more than just the three days of the event. It is year-round. As I always write to my donors during October, “you and I don’t need no stinkin’ awareness month.” My pink Komen bracelet is on my wrist every minute of every day. When I go out for a walk, whether for training or (especially these past couple of months) to get out of the house and get some air, I always wear a 3-Day shirt, 3-Day hat, and hot pink sneakers, along with my fanny pack festooned with 3-Day pins. I want always to be a walking billboard.
Every once in a while, it pays off when a woman passing me or going the other way looks at my get-up, and I can see in her face that she is thinking, “Yes, I need to make an appointment for a mammogram.”
Now that you’ve raised $250,000, what’s the next goal you’ve got your eyes on?
The thought that I have actually raised $250,000 is still astonishing to me. I remember so vividly when I sent out my first fundraising email in the Spring of 2004, I was wondering how much of the minimum fundraising requirement I could raise through donors and how much I would have to self-donate to do that one walk.
Amazingly, I wound up the number three fundraiser for San Diego 3-Day in 2004. Those wonderful people have never stopped donating. A few weeks ago, within moments of receiving the donation that put me over $250,000, I received another donation.
I thought how fitting it was to immediately start on the next $250,000. Well, it took me 16 years to raise this much. At my age, I cannot imagine being able to do this for another 16 years…there is, after all, only one George Nummer. However, my goal remains what it has been from the first dollar I raised: to do everything I can to slay the monster that murdered my Judy. So, for as long as I can, I will keep fundraising and walking.
Tell us what the 3-Day means to you.
The 3-Day has enabled me to fight back against my beloved cousin’s killer.
It has allowed me to be the conduit for the generosity of the many people in my world who have responded to my fundraising emails over the years.
It has brought me lifelong friends from among those I have met on event, and from my own local New York group of walkers.
The 3-Day has given me a purpose beyond my own day-to-day life. I cannot imagine what the last 16 years would have been without it.
Burt, we cannot thank you enough for your passion, dedication, and heart. THANK YOU for your commitment to making a difference in the fight against breast cancer. We are inspired by you and grateful for the contribution you’ve made to lead our Komen 3-Day family with your remarkable fundraising accomplishment!
Burt’s achievement will qualify him for the next level in the Lifetime Commitment Circle. He joins Loretta Englishbee, Kathy Giller and Bert Stein as Impact members at the $250,000 level.
